Newcastle United's rising star Michael Chopra is aiming to break into the first team squad by the end of the season.

The 17-year-old, who was handed the number 28 shirt by Bobby Robson last month, will be in the starting line-up when England Under-19s face Georgia tonight in a European Championship qualifier at York's Bootham Crescent.

And the product of the Newcastle's youth academy is hoping he will soon be putting pressure on United's own international class strikers for a place in the first team.

Chopra came off the bench in his debut for the reserves to score the winner in the 2-1 victory at Bradford City last week and his development continues to gather momentum. Although the confident youngster admits he still has much to learn, he also claims that he has set himself a series of personal goals for the current campaign.

He said: "My aim is to break into the first team squad by the end of the season. I thought I might have been given a first team number at the start of the season, but I wasn't.

"I went away and carried on working hard and I was delighted when the manager gave me a number.

"It has been a very quick learning process for me and although I'm not getting carried away I'm really pleased with the way things are going. There is a lot of hard work to go, but I am confident in my ability.

"Training with the first team has taught me so much. Everyday that I go into training I'm learning something new. Being so close to Alan Shearer has obviously been a great help as I can watch what he does.

"Scoring on my debut for the reserves was fantastic. I travelled to Bradford just happy to be involved and when Tommy Craig told me to start warming up I was delighted.

"We were 1-0 down when I went on and we ended up winning 2-1 and to score the winner was unbelievable. It was the sort of goal that every striker loves, Shola Ameobi made a run down the left wing and when he crossed the ball I just had to tap it in."

Chopra, expected to be the first Asian footballer to play for United's first team, also feels his development is being helped by international football.

He said: "It is probably a bit tougher than the reserves because you are playing against teams from different countries with different styles.